Game board with magnetic game pieces

ABSTRACT

A game construction played on a game board having alternate paths of movement for the game pieces wherein the game pieces each include an axial center with oppositely disposed vertically arranged N-S magnets 180* apart such that when one game piece moves over another game piece capture or repulsion between the game pieces will occur depending on the orientation of the game pieces. The dice is used to indicate the number of positions each player may move during each turn and the player may turn his game piece a quarter or a half of a turn as a part of his move to give him proper orientation to capture his oppnent&#39;&#39;s game piece. The game pieces may be of any shape and may have visual identification means to indicate magnet orientation and location. The game may be played on game boards of a variety of designs including a checkers type board or a space station board wherein a center earth launching station is provided for a starting point for the game pieces in moving along launching paths intersecting orbital paths about the earth starting station.

[451 Aug. 1, 1972 1 GAME BOARD WITH MAGNETIC GAME PIECES [72] Inventor:Grover M. Davis, 502 Second Ave.,

Audubon, Iowa 50025 22 Filed: March 9, 1970 21 Appl.No.: 17,541

52 us. (:1 ..273/134 AE,

273/131 AD, 273/137 AE, 273/134 AA I [51] Int. Cl; ..A631 3/02 [58]Field of Search.....273/131 A, 131 AD, 134 AB, 273/135 AX, 136 B, 137AX, 134 AA, 1 M;

I ATENTS OR APPLICATIQNS 1,049,571 11/1966 Great Britain ..273/137 AXuzuiz Z. Cdpfure Pas flan Pow wl'an I? f f 62- v E 60 Fejep f/on 62Primary Examiner-Richard C. Pinkham Assistant Examiner-Marvin SiskindAttorney-Zarley, McKee & Thomte [5 7] ABSTRACT A game constructionplayed on a game board having alternate paths of movement for the gamepieces wherein the game pieces each include an axial center withoppositely disposed vertically? arranged N-S mag- I nets 180 apart suchthat when one game piece moves over another game piece capture orrepulsion between the game pieces will occur depending on theorientation of the game pieces. The dice is used to indicate the numberof positions each player may move during each turn and the player mayturn his game piece a quarter or a half of a turn as a part of his moveto give him proper orientation to capture his oppnents game piece. Thegame pieces may be of any shape and may have visual identification meansto indicate magnet orientation and location. The game may be played ongame boards of a variety of designs including a checkers type board or aspace station board wherein a center earth launching station is providedfor a starting point for the game pieces in moving along launching pathsintersecting orbital paths about the earth starting station.

10 Claims, 1 Drawing Figures There have been many games involvingplaying pieces available heretofore. However, the game of this inventioninvolves the playing pieces having the capability of capturing theplaying pieces of the opposing player wherein upon all playing piecesbeing controlled by one player the game is completed. The playing pieceseach include an axial center with diametrically oppositely disposed N-Smagnetic elements. The playing pieces may be circular in shape such as aplanetary station for a space station game or square in shape with themagnets in the corners fora checkers type game. The variations of theplaying boards and the shape of the playing pieces isinfinite.

These and other features and advantages of this invention will becomereadily apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to thefollowing description when taken into consideration with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a checkers type playing board with theplayingpieces thereon;

FIG..2 is a fragmentary perspective view of one of the playing piecesand illustrating in particular the N-S magnet in one corner of thesquare playing piece;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are top plan views of the playing piece of FIG. 2 withFIG. 4 showingthe playing piece rotated 90 and being of a differentcolor;

FIGS. 5 and 6 show the playing pieces in capture and repulsion positionsrespectively;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a space station playing board and theplaying pieces thereon;

FIG. 8 is a perspective fragmentary view of the playing piece for thespace station playing board with one pole broken away to show themagnet;

FIGS. 9 and 10 are plan views of the playing pieces of FIG. 8 with FIG.10 showing the playing piece rotated 90 and being of a different color;and

FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate the positions of the playing pieces incaptureand repulsion positions.

The game board and game piecesare shown in FIG. I and are referred togenerally by the reference numeral 10. In this embodiment a game boardsuch as a checkers board 12 is employed having alternate dark squares l4and light squares 16. The opposing players initially place their playingpieces 18 and 20 at opposite sides of the board for movement onto andacross the board in directions permitted by the rules and as indicatedby throw of a dice 22.

The game piece 20 as seen in FIG. 2 is generally square in shapecorresponding to the squares 14 and 16 on the game board 12. In oppositecorners 24 and 26 are magnets 28 and 30 having vertically arranged northand south poles. The other pair of corners 32 and 34 have no magnetmeans in them.

The players pieces 18 and 20 are distinguishable from each other bybeing of different colors as indicated by the cross hatching on thepieces in FIGS. 1 and 4.

During playing of the game the players pieces are moved a number ofsquares on the board and/or are rotated 90 in accordance with the numberon the dice that is thrown before each play. The idea of the game is tocapture the opponents pieces and thus as seen in FIGS. 5 and 6 the piece18 has captured the piece 20 in FIG. 5 while in FIG. 6 the piece 18 isrepelled or re jected from the piece 20. The alignment of the'magnets 28and 30 in FIG. 5 shows the top piece 18 with its magnets 28 and 30similar to the magnets 28 and 30 of the bottom piece 20 and thus the toppiece is able to capture the bottom piece 20. Similarly in FIG. 6 themagnets 28 and 30 of the top piece 18 are opposite-the magnets 20 of thebottom piece and the top piece 18 is repelled or rejected away from thebottom piece 20.

In FIGS. 3 and 4 the rotation through is illustrated which is onepossible way of utilizing one move given to the player by the throw ofthe dice which may or may not place the player in a position to capturean opponents piece. It is only when the magnets are in the position ofFIG. 5 that capture is possible and all the other positions are eitherneutral or will cause repulsion as shown in FIG. 6.

Although it is optional, the magnets 30 are color coded on one side asindicated by the reference numeral 30A such that when the playing piecesare aligned with two colored magnets vertically disposed capture will bepossible. The game can be played without color coding the magnetsleaving a greater challenge for the memory and much of the playing tochance.

In FIG. 7 a space station game board 40 is provided which includes arepresentation of the earth 42 in the center and orbital paths circlingthe earth but connected to the earth by launching paths 46. The board iscompleted by illustration of constellations 48 and stars 50. A dice 22is also provided.

The game pieces for the game board 40 are space station shaped piecescircular in shape with four poles arranged symmetrically around theperiphery of the pieces. Thus the game piece 52 includes a ring 54, acenter hub 56 interconnected to the ring by four radial pieces 58.Magnetic poles 60 and 62 are provided on one pair of opposite sideswhile neutral poles 64 are provided on the other pair of opposite sides.Again for identification purposes the top 66 of one of the magnets,magnet 60 is color coded to assist in orientation during the play of thegame although this color coding may be omitted if the game is to be mademore challenging to the players. Looking at FIGS. 9 and 10 it is seenthat the game piece 52 is represented by one color while in FIG. 10 agame piece 54 is cross hatched to indicate a different color and alsothe game piece 54 has been rotated 90 from the position of the gamepiece 52 in FIG. 9 to indicate utilization of one move given by thethrow of the dice 22.

Also vertically arranged north-south magnets are provided in themagnetized poles 60 and 62.

In the play of the game it is seen from FIGS. 11 and 12 that the captureposition of FIG. 11 requires that the game piece 52 be aligned with themagnet poles 60 together in addition to the opposite magnet poles 62being together. Conversely, the repulsion or avoidance of captureposition indicated in FIG. 12 shows the poles out of phase such that thepole 62 is vertically arranged above the pole 60 on opposite sides ofthe playing piece.

I claim:

1. A game construction comprising,

a game board having alternate paths of movement for game pieces,

a plurality of game pieces including pieces for opposing players, and

each of said game pieces having an axial center and a pair of verticallyarranged N-S magnet means disposed 180 apart and the magnetic means ineach pair in each game piece being oriented in opposite directionswhereby upon one game piece being moved over another game piece the twogame pieces will be magnetically attracted to each other or repelledaccording to the rotational orientation of the two game pieces so thatthe upper game piece may capture the lower game piece if the game piecesare magnetically attracted to each other and so that subsequent moves ofthe said upper game piece will cause the captured lower game piece tomove therewith.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein said game pieces are circular inshape.

3. The structure of claim 1 wherein said game pieces include fourequally spaced peripherally located poles, two which include said pairof magnetic means.

4. The structure of claim 3 wherein each of said game pieces includes acenter axially located hub portion connected to a peripherally disposedring through radial extending portions, said four poles being integrallyconnected to said ring.

5. The structure of claim 4 wherein visual orientation identificationmeans is provided on each of said game pieces to indicate theorientation and location of the magnetic means.

6. The structure of claim 1 wherein said game pieces are square in shapeand said pair of magnetic means are located in diagonally oppositecorners with the other pair of corners being comprised of non magneticmaterial.

7. The structure of claim 6 wherein visual orientation identificationmeans is provided on each of said game pieces to indicate theorientation and location of the magnetic means.

8. The structure of claim 3 wherein said game board includes a centerearth starting station with substantially concentric orbital pathsextending therearound in spaced apart relationship, and launching pathsextending in spaced apart relationship outwardly from said earthstarting station to said orbital paths.

9. The structure of claim 8 wherein each of said orbital paths include aplurality of orbit space locations and each of said launching pathsinterconnecting a space station on each of said orbital paths.

10. The structure of claim 6 wherein said game board is rectangular inshape and includes a plurality of straight rows of playing stationsacross the board from each of its sides.

1. A game construction comprising, a game board having alternate pathsof movement for game pieces, a plurality of game pieces including piecesfor opposing players, and each of said game pieces having an axialcenter and a pair of vertically arranged N-S magnet means disposed 180*apart and the magnetic means in each pair in each game piece beingoriented in opposite directions whereby upon one game piece being movedover another game piece the two game pieces will be magneticallyattracted to each other or repelled according to the rotationalorientation of the two game pieces so that the upper game piece maycapture the lower game piece if the game pieces are magneticallyattracted to each other and so that subsequent moves of the said uppergame piece will cause the captured lower game piece to move therewith.2. The structure of claim 1 wherein said game pieces are circular inshape.
 3. The structure of claim 1 wherein said game pieces include fourequally spaced peripherally located poles, two which include said pairof magnetic means.
 4. The structure of claim 3 wherein each of said gamepieces includes a center axially located hub portion connected to aperipherally disposed ring through radial extending portions, said fourpoles being integrally connected to said ring.
 5. The structure of claim4 wherein visual orientation identification means is provided on each ofsaid game pieces to indicate the orientation and location of themagnetic means.
 6. The structure of claim 1 wherein said game pieces aresquare in shape and said pair of magnetic means are located indiagonally opposite corners with the other pair of corners beingcomprised of non magnetic material.
 7. The structure of claim 6 whereinvisual orientation identification means is provided on each of said gamepieces to indicate the orientation and location of the magnetic means.8. The structure of claim 3 wherein said game board includes a centerearth starting station with substantially concentric orbital pathsextending therearound in spaced apart relationship, and launching pathsextending in spaced apart relationship outwardly from said earthstarting station to said orbital paths.
 9. The structure of claim 8wherein each of said orbital paths include a plurality of orbit spacelocations and each of said launching paths interconnecting a spacestation on each of said orbital paths.
 10. The structure of claim 6wherein said game board is rectangular in shape and includes a pluralityof straight rows of playing stations across the board from each of itssides.